Tenacious Tuesday Testimony Time

Answer: I went to the shoe store to buy “tenn-a-cious”! (Sounds like tennis shoes.)

My mom and dad were over-protective parents and that caused me to miss my calling as a professional wrestler or football player during my High School years. =)

However, there was a sport that my parents allowed me to join — Tennis.

I was an Oceanside Pirate Tennis Player (Varsity, mind you)….I wasn’t all that great but I wasn’t terrible.

I remember when I played a doubles match and the other opponent was waiting in front of the net…well, I thought about how to discourage this kid by trying to hit him with the ball. I had the perfect wind and weather conditions. The tennis ball came my way. Painted with a big cross hair on his face, I hit the ball just perfectly in my sweet spot and released a battle cry!

The ball ended up getting stuck between his racquet’s frame. He backed off! =)

If you haven’t played tennis or flip pass tennis matches on TV (like I do with Baseball), you would think it was a super easy sport. Tennis is far from easy. Serves can exceed 150 mph and it requires ninja-like skills to return the ball.

So during my tennis days, my hero was Michael Chang. When I worked for a non-profit organization, English Language Institute China (ELIC) in Sam Dimas, CA, I was able to meet Mr. Chang after he shared with us. He’s such a humble guy!

Here’s wiki’s bio:

Michael Te-Pei Chang (born February 22, 1972) is a former American professional tennis player. He is best remembered for becoming the youngest-ever male player to win a Grand Slam singles title when he won the French Open in 1989 at the age of 17.
Known for his on-court speed and fighting spirit, Chang is considered by many observers to have been one of the best tennis counterpunchers of all time. He also introduced the jumping two-handed backhand. He remained in the top 10 of the ATP world rankings for several years in the 1990s, peaking at world no. 2.

Chang was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2008.

Since 1981 we have been placing passionately committed people in teaching roles across Asia, who primarily serve through the medium of English instruction. We accomplish this through recruiting, training and sending men and women from the USA, Canada and other countries, to meet the ever-growing demand for quality English education in Asia. The comprehensive graduate-level training provided to our new teachers has raised the bar significantly in the countries where we serve. Ongoing professional development opportunities for our teachers include earning Master’s Degrees, graduate certificate programs, and two Ph.D. options.

We have vibrant programs for college students, graduates, singles, couples, families and second-career adults. Our present countries of service include China, Mongolia, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia. In most cases we maintain both year-long and summer programs. While we are focused primarily on university campuses and teacher training, we teach in a variety of other settings designed to best serve our host countries and government entities. We are committed to working with our host countries and government agencies to design teaching programs to best meet their ever-changing needs. Increasingly this includes supplying key industry experts from the West to engage with their Asian counterparts through lectures and roundtable discussions. In the coming year we are excited to be adding new teaching programs in both Mongolia and Laos. In China, we are for the first time sending Spanish language teachers to complement our English language teams on university campuses.

If you are interested in serving as a English Teacher overseas, please pray about contacting ELIC.